Slow motion in music video

FernandoAndre

FernandoAndre

Hello,

for the first time I will try use slow motion in a music video, with people singing - like Coldplay - Yellow. So, I will shoot it at 60p and I believe the method to make this is prepare the music before the set with a faster speed, shoot with this acelerated music as a playback, and after all, we can decrease this velocity to fit. Correct?

So if yes, I'm a bit confused about how to properly configure the math of the process. The final framerate will be 23,976, so the max slowmotion I can get from 60p is 2.4x. Assuming I want a 2x slower image, what I have to do with the music? Cut the lenght in a half? There is something I need to know about this? Can I do this transform in the audio in the video editing software?

Yep, it's a noob question, but I never did it. Sometimes is better to ask something stupid instead of lose your shoot hehe. Thanks for any help!
 
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First and foremost - Yellow - he was singing faster than normal so when it was slowed down his mouth matched the song. The music you hear is recorded separately and placed on the video, what you are hearing is not what he sounded on the beach.

Second - Normal 'Slow Motion' in music video
The song plays at regular speed (unless your plan is to slow it down intentionally).

Therefore all your slowmotion segments will be out of sync with the music unless you do as coldplay did and speed up the rate of singing in the video (he is likely mouthing the words - the sound is a recording done elsewhere that was overlay on the video).

If your recording live - you need to separate the audio from the video in your edit (Not sure your NLE*, but in Premier it's call unlink).

Is you have a song track and your just putting clips to it then simply lay down the track in your NLE*

60p is 2.5x speed (unless your doing something strange) to 24fps
*Non-linear editing software

Does that make sense to you as a starting block?
 
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Thanks for the response.

Yes, I want to make like Coldplay did.
So, considering I want the final clip to be 2x slower than normal, what I need to do? Speed up the song until it turn into half of the original lenght?
 
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No, the song length is the same, you just need your singer to sing twice as fast when you film them.

Then you take the video, cut audio out, add your separate recording of the song, then slow down the video until his mouth matches the words.
 
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Graeme said:
No, the song length is the same, you just need your singer to sing twice as fast when you film them.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I made the wrong question. I mean, the playback to guide the singer on the set, need to be faster, right? I don't think they can sing it faster without a playback to do it at the right time.

So, to generate the accelerated playback, considering a 2x slow motion, the music will be faster as being half of original lenght when I apply the transformation into the audio file?

My english is very poor, I'm having difficult to explain what is worrying me. But I'm a bit insecure about how the playback need to be on the set.
 
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When you are filming, yes play the music at the faster speed (yes that shortens the song length to half).

Note - the actor does not have to 'sing' the words, only look like they are singing. As you will use the original music in your video.

Make sure they practice!
 
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In the "Wrapped Around Your Finger" video by The Police they did exactly that - played the track fast then slowed the film down to match the original track speed. Sorry, I don't know the technical details.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svWINSRhQU0
 
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The trick is as long as they sing fast "at the same rate" for all the lines of a single take you can slow the video to match the words of the song... you won't have perfect 2x time perhaps but close enough.

I plan to do this in a music video eventually once I have a song that works and willing band.

Good luck! I would love to see the results when you are done.
 
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I come back when it's finished. It's not a band video exactly, but a crowdfunding video for a choral of children. I will use this slow motion for certain scenes of the choral, to bring a beautiful mise-en-scène.

Thank you very much.

ps: what a coincidence, Alcove, my video contains candles too hehe. :D
 
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This is a fun effect, one of my favorites. I've used it before and I'll definitely use it again.

Yeah, you've got the gist of it. If you plan to slow down the footage to 50% of it's original speed, then you need to shoot the video with the music playing at 200% it's original speed. If you want to slow it down from 60fps to 24fps (40% speed) then you need to record it with the music playing at 250% it's original speed.

HOWEVER, it simply ain't that simple. The main question is whether or not your singer can lip sync at such a high speed. In both the Coldplay video and the one I made, the slo-mo lip-syncing only occurs for lyrics that are rather slow-paced. In my video, there are parts of the song with faster-paced lyrics and there's no chance in hell our singer could've even tried to stay on pace with it.

The amount of slo-mo you can do is absolutely dependent on the song. Experiment with it, try different speeds and see which ones you can actually lip-sync to. Trial and error will help you figure out how fast you can shoot it, and thus how much you can slow it down.

By the way, the work isn't done after production. In the video I linked above, I did a TON of speeding-up and slowing-down of footage, numerous times within the same shot, in order to get the singers' lips to match. Even with relatively slow-paced lyrics, it's really difficult to sing along to a Chipmunks rendition of it.

You can definitely do it, though, and you should -- it's a lot of fun! :)
 
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When you want to have slowmotion that is 2,5 slower than real life, you will need to speed up the recording of the song 2,5 times so you have an audiotrack to playback on set during shooting that's sync with the original song and the slow motion.
(Otherwise it will be hard for the band/artist to stay sync. (Even at normal speed you'll need to playback the song on set.)

The other way around is also true: if you want movement to be twice as fast, you'll need to playback the song on set twice as slow.

I've done both in one video years ago. Shot on tape and we changed the speed of the song on the day itself, so the band had no time to prep... lol...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHK_anHNzbI

Good luck: don't forget to post the result :)
 
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Very nice work, Cracker Funk and Walter. :D

I made the 2x faster playback of the song and just now realized it's almost impossible to children sync it. I don't even imagined it would be sooo fast :(
Also, I think the main problem to try it with children is that it's funny to hear the ant voices. They will laugh forever.

I prepared a 1.75 faster playback, in which the voices are not so unnatural. The slow motion will not be so good as I wanted, but better than nothing. Let's see.

Thanks for the comments!
 
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You can speed it up without changing pitch.
Then they won't die laughing because it sounds funny ;)

What software (and version) do you have to change the speed of the song?
 
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WalterB said:
You can speed it up without changing pitch.
Then they won't die laughing because it sounds funny ;)

What software (and version) do you have to change the speed of the song?
Click to expand...

On Sony Vegas, I clicked with mouse right button on the soundtrack, properties, and in the "Time stretch / pitch shift" options I choosed the classic method and changed the new time lenght. The other method is "élastique".

Vegas has a lot of audio fx, maybe there is something to change the time without the ant effect. Do you know?
 
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I'm not familiar with Sony Vegas...

But a quick google search with: "sony vegas elastique effect?"
yields this result:
"élastique Efficient for time stretching and pitch ... files to avoid the well-known mickey-mouse effect when pitching up or down"

I guess you should try elastique.
 
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WalterB said:
I'm not familiar with Sony Vegas...

But a quick google search with: "sony vegas elastique effect?"
yields this result:
"élastique Efficient for time stretching and pitch ... files to avoid the well-known mickey-mouse effect when pitching up or down"

I guess you should try elastique.
Click to expand...

Thanks, that's it. I didn't use the correct method as the set was yesterday, but the kids acted very professionally. They laughed at the first time, then started to take it serious.

Again, thanks for the help on this topic. Let's to post-production time :)
 
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